Following the death of his friend and mentor Sam Cooke, Johnnie Taylor decided to flip a coin to see which record company he’d approach--Stax or Motown. Stax won the toss, but Taylor ended up having the best of both worlds when the Memphis company enlisted Detroit producer Don Davis to add some Motown-like sheen to the singer’s Arkansas-hewn grit. This inspired marriage of Northern and Southern styles yielded hit after hit, four of which--the socially conscious “I Am Somebody” (to which the Dramatics contribute their trademark harmonies), the haunting “I Don't Wanna Lose you,” the hard-socking “Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone” (Taylor’s second soul chart-topper), and a galvanizing remake of Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away”--are contained on this classic disc.